Islamophobia in Britain is at record levels. Across the country, there has long been a growing problem with this type of hatred, which a 14-year-long Tory government and intensifying media propaganda campaign only worsened. There have been more and more heartbreaking stories of abuse since establishment forces rallied to support Israel’s genocide in Gaza from October 2023 onwards. But because many people simply avoid reporting their experiences, the stories we do hear are only the tip of the iceberg.
The Canary spoke to Hamzah Naveed, a campaigner against Islamophobia who has been working with the People’s Alliance for Change and Equality (PACE) in Kirklees, West Yorkshire. In preparation for the new mass party on the left and the 2026 local election, PACE has been connecting campaigners, trade unionists, and politicians across Kirklees in opposition to war, cuts, and racism. It has received the support of both Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana.
Naveed described cases of intimidation, discrimination, and violence against innocent people. He also spoke about apparent media disinterest, and the way establishment media and politicians keep contributing to the dangerous rise in Islamophobic sentiment. But he insisted that, with PACE and hopefully the new left party nationally:
The diversity is immense, but we agree on the same thing: austerity needs to go, housing needs to be better, people need food… opposition to genocide, opposition to all wars really… If we can spend billions of pounds on war, we can spend billions of pounds on the people that live in this country
Scapegoating makes sure “we don’t knock the doors of power and ask: where is the money being spent?”
Naveed said the best way to solve tensions between different communities is to bring them together, but that:
it’s easier to get people divided and hate refugees and hate religion so that we don’t knock the doors of power and ask: where is the money being spent?
One issue that far-right forces have tried to weaponise, of course, is the issue of child sexual abuse (CSA). As the Canary has previously reported, evidence very much suggests that CSA is a systemic, society-wide crisis with roots in misogyny, toxic masculinity, and institutional failure – not ethnicity or religion. And this is a point that Naveed emphasised, saying:
There’s no religion that supports paedophilia or grooming or whatever you wanna call it. Everybody will tell you that this is wrong… The Tory party did an investigation on grooming gangs… There was an independent investigation. It found that Pakistanis and Muslims are not the majority of the grooming gangs. And there was actual recommendations made which have not still been put in place. So there is a cover up. But it’s not got anything to do with religion and race.
He added:
If tomorrow there was a call across the board to reduce paedophilia or reduce grooming gangs, there would be everybody from every colour, from every religion in the streets. Because it has no religion. It has no colour.
Nonetheless, the far right and its enablers in Britain’s media and political establishment have overseen a very real increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes in Britain in recent years.
Islamophobia: Iintimidation, discrimination, and violence
Naveed spoke about a brutal recent stabbing in Kirklees against a South-Asian man at a petrol station who was simply getting his lunch. Earlier in the year, meanwhile, a fatal stabbing attack in the borough killed a teenage Syrian refugee.
There is also the case of double standards in Britain over which war crimes in which countries it is acceptable for people to oppose. Showing solidarity with Ukraine – a mostly Christian country – is fully acceptable, for example, while showing solidarity with Palestine – a mostly Muslim country – leads to intimidation or discrimination.
One event Naveed described was the intimidation of a child at school for showing solidarity with the Palestinian people during the Gaza genocide:
I have had a case where a mother was on the phone crying to me, saying “my child wore a Palestine flag to school and… other pupils came and said ‘your people are killing my people’”. And when the mother raised it to the school, they said “tensions are high, emotions are high”. The mother said “I’ll settle for an apology”. The apology was, “I’m sorry that your people are killing my people”.
He has also heard from people whose companies have tried to silence their opposition to genocide, clearly discriminating against them over their solidarity with Palestine.
Because most of the establishment media can get more attention (and therefore money) from stirring up tensions rather than calling them out, however, many people simply don’t try to get their stories out. According to Naveed, some people simply ask themselves “am I welcoming or creating a bigger problem for myself by reporting something?”
This is not the kind of society anyone should want.
To remedy that, the kind of solidarity and unity PACE is nurturing in Kirklees is exactly what we need.
